Jonas Folger’s sensational rookie season reached new heights with a first Moto2 pole position at Le Mans. The German pipped Esteve Rabat by four thousandths of a second with a stunning last ditch effort, securing pole on just his fifth weekend in the class.
Forward Racing’s Simone Corsi, now running officially on a Kalex chassis after previously running a “Forward KLX” machine, was the pacesetter early on but normal business looked to have been restored twenty minutes from time when Rabat clocked a 1:37.623 to go fastest.
Folger was lying ninth with a minute to go and trailed Rabat by a tenth of a second heading into the final sector but a tremendous run through the closing bends saw Jonas pip the championship leader by the slimmest of margins. Rabat remained second despite improvements by several strong riders with Luis Salom snatching third from under the nose of Mika Kallio who had jumped onto the front row seconds earlier.
Mika Kallio’s upturn in qualifying form continued with fourth place ahead of Thomas Luthi and Simone Corsi while Maverick Vinales lines up a slightly disappointing seventh on the second Pons Kalex. Ricard Cardus’ performance to secure eighth was anything but disappointing on the home soil of his Tech 3 team but Sandro Cortese was left to rue a mid-session crash which restricted him to ninth, just ahead of Britain’s Sam Lowes.
